Bombay Shaving Company founder and CEO Shantanu Deshpande recently penned a note on LinkedIn about realising that in India, most people in India don't like their jobs and if they were financially stable, they would not feel the need to show up to work at all.
The only reason why Indian workers return to offices every day is for financial security and sustenance, he said.
"One of the tragic and late realisations I've had is - most people don't like their jobs. If everyone in India was given sustenance money and financial security their current jobs give them, 99 percent won't show up to work the next day," Deshpande wrote. "From blue collar workforce to govt employees to gig workers to factories to insurance salesmen to banks to small business owners to even 'fun and employee-friendly startups' like BSC (my HR is gonna kill me) - the story is the same. 19-20 ka farak (There's hardly a difference)."
Commenting on the country's work culture, that Deshpande equated to a dangling carrot, he said, "To usurp someone away from their homes and families all day from morning to night, sometimes for days and weeks, with a hanging carrot of a paycheck - we just assume it's alright to do that cos that's what's been happening for 250+ years. That's how nations have been built. So we do it."
The Bombay Shaving Company boss also highlighted the country's wealth gap, stating that just 2,000 families control a large share of the nation's wealth. While the exact figures are uncertain, Deshpande pointed out that these families contribute significantly less than 1.8 percent of the taxes.
On an ending note, he revealed that that has found himself questioning the inequity of such a work culture and requested those with resources to help others to "be kind and generous and push as many people up as you can".
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